A few weeks in to the new arrangement, Edward’s mother, Elsa Gunther was sitting at the small oak desk in the rear of the house filling in some invoice forms when the black dial phone rang.
Dressed in her polka dot blue dress, she picked up the phone.
With the thickest of German accents, Elsa enunciated, “GOOD...DAY, YOU...ARE...THROUGH...TO...EMPIRE...ELECTRICS. HOW...MAY...I...HELP...YOU?”
Momentarily taken aback, the voice on the other side of the phone replied “Hi yes, I am calling from the local council office and we have a bit of an emergency.”
“Oh Ja, how may we be of assistance?” Elsa replied, her furrowed brows and pale skin scrunched.
“The electricity has gone out of the entire building and our contractors are all busy on other jobs, we need someone immediately”. The squeaky male voice said with a hint of panic.
“ja ja, we help you.” The excitement in Elsa’s voice knocked out her professional front exposing the poor grammar that lay beneath.
“Great, when can we expect you?” the voice asked
“Ahh you hold on one minute ok?” Elsa dropped the handle of the receiver, swivelled on her executive chair and proceeded to race out of the room.
“EDDY, EDDY, COUNCIL ON PHONE. BIG CUSTOMER. QUICK QUICK” she shouted at the top of the stair landing. Her voice echoed through the small sized Victorian house laced with old fashioned, flower-patterned, lime green wallpaper. A creek accompanied the opening of a door on the ground floor leading to the kitchen.
Emerging from the door was a fresh faced Edward, sporting a thick blond mop atop his cranium. He was wearing a white vest and holding a sandwich looking startled by the burst of noise.
“KOMMEN SCHNELL KOMMEN SCHNELL” Elsa bleated in her native tongue invoking her only son to go quickly. “Es ist der Gemeinderat. Sie brauchen ihre hilfre.”
“Where are they?” Ed asked excitedly, putting his sandwich on a small table in the passageway.
“They are on telephone. Quickly” Elsa said with power
Edward raced up the stairs in to the backroom. He jumped behind the desk and picked up the receiver which had been laying idle for a few minutes.
“Hi...Empire Electrics, how can I help?”
“Yes this is Bromley Council, I was inquiring about having someone come over and fix our electricity ASAP”.
“I’ll be right over” Ed slammed the receiver without giving the man a chance to respond.
